New Discoveries
by EsmeAmelia
Summary: In a universe where the Death Star never happened, the lives of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo are changed forever with the arrival of a visitor named Leia Organa. Very, very AU.
1. Chapter 1

AN: I don't own Star Wars - even though this particular version of SW is rather twisted. It's yet another challenge fic where the challenge was to rewrite the SW universe so that the Rebellion never formed because the Emperor was killed and peace was restored early on - thus Luke, Leia, and Han never fought and became heroes. Instead, they had to take on professions that the challenger decided on (I didn't pick them). Confused yet? Well, simply put, the Death Star doesn't happen and Luke, Leia, and Han have different jobs. Complete rewriting of the OT.

"New Discoveries"

By EsmeAmelia

Chapter 1

Ben Kenobi sat in his Tatooine hovel, his eyes closed, his hands relaxed in his lap, appearing deep in meditation, but in truth unable to get there. His mind was too troubled - troubled by a name, a duty, a life long abandoned.

He wished he could wipe away the memories of his Jedi days, the days when his life served a purpose. When his kind were _needed._ But then again, maybe they never were needed in the first place. The Empire fell merely seven years after its formation - without any help from the Jedi at all.

No...he was fooling himself. The face of a young man who was no more swirled into his vortex of darkness, one who turned against the Jedi, once called the chosen one. Had he not attempted to overthrow the Emperor, democracy would never have been restored.

Yet the Empire shouldn't have fallen for _that_ reason.

Ben's fingers curled around his robe. Ben...why was he so accustomed to that name? Technically he wasn't in hiding anymore...but what was the point of taking on the old name associated with the life that was gone forever? His eyes shot open, facing a holo of the New Republic President Mon Mothma, taken on the day the Republic had been officially restored.

And the day the Jedi officially fell.

The smiling face in the holo seemed to be smirking at him, boasting that the galaxy could indeed function without the Jedi. Ben sighed, knowing Mon had meant well. She had the best intentions when she refused to rebuild the Jedi Order for fear of another Vader or Palpatine rising.

He closed his eyes again, his consciousness reaching into the skies, his mind unknowing of the particular reason why he was doing so, only listening to the Force urging him on. A ship slowly materialized in the formless color behind his eyelids...a ship heading for Tatooine, carrying something important...

Some_one_ important...

Ben's eyes opened, the flash of excitement that once existed nineteen years ago finally back in them. The Force was preparing itself. The truth was ready to be fully embraced.

It was time.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Luke Skywalker sighed to himself as he ran his knife through the thirtieth (or it might have been the fiftieth, he wasn't exactly keeping count) vegetable of the day, once more nearly cutting himself from lack of concentration. Seven more hours before he could go home and he was already sweating from this kitchen. Why did the food slicer have to stand so close to the stove anyway? It wasn't like he got to actually cook the food.

He didn't hate his job at Biggs's restaurant. It brought in good money and let him spend a lot of time with his friend, which made it slightly more interesting than moisture farming like his aunt and uncle did. It was just that...when they were younger, he and Biggs once thought of a more glamourous future. Going to the Imperial Navel Academy, becoming pilots, seeing the universe...

They hadn't predicted that there wouldn't _be_ an Imperial Navel Academy by the time they grew up.

It was a good thing, Luke knew that, but still...

He flinched, brought back into the real world by a jab of pain in his finger. He glanced down to see a line of red oozing down his skin. _Not again,_ he thought. Sometimes he wondered why Biggs still trusted him with a knife.

As Luke was sucking on his injured finger, Biggs burst into the kitchen, his face glistening from sweat. All the workers immediately ceased their tasks to take notice of their boss, but the only one he took notice of was the young slicer.

"Luke!" he called. "Someone's here to see you."

Luke groaned, the taste of flesh, sweat, and blood still lingering on his tongue. "Uncle Owen again? Tell him I'll check the vaporators when I get home. You know, with those two new droids he bought you'd think they could..."

"It's not your uncle," Biggs interrupted. "Or your aunt."

Luke grabbed a juice-stained rag and pressed it against his finger. "Who is it then?"

Biggs grinned, wrinkling his mustache. "It's Ben Kenobi."

Luke's hand slipped, dropping the rag to the ground. "Ben Kenobi? What's he doing here?"

"Why don't you go find out? He's at the table near the front entrance."

Without picking up the rag, Luke dashed out of the kitchen.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The elderly-looking man was sitting up straight when Luke found him, giving the younger man a sly smile that seemed full of secrets. His hands rested on the edges of the glass table as if waiting to be fed. The suns shone through the window next to him, reflecting off the glass, giving his face an ethereal look.

"Ben!" Luke exclaimed. "What brings you here?"

The former Jedi's smile faded. "You know my real name, Luke." He raised his eyebrows, as if he were a father scolding his child. "Why don't you ever use it?"

Luke slid into the chair across from him. "I dunno...I guess I'm just used to Ben."

"As is everyone else," replied Ben, or as he was born, Obi-Wan. He put no inflection on his sentence, no indication on whether it was resentful, angry, saddened, or merely stating a fact.

Luke's fingers walked a few steps on the table before he found the courage to speak. "So...what brings you here?"

"News from your aunt and uncle," said Ben.

Luke couldn't stop a growl from escaping his lips. "Look, I already told Biggs that I'll check the vaporators when I get home..."

"Why are you rushing to a conclusion before you even hear what I have to say?"

"Sorry."

Ben's eyebrows twitched. "Luke, a band of xenoarcheologists are coming to Tatooine."

"What?" Luke asked.

Ben's smile returned, this time giving a closed-mouthed laugh. "You really don't know what a xenoarcheologist is? It's an interplanetary explorer who seeks to find the remains of civilizations long gone..."

"I know what it is," Luke interrupted. "I mean...what are they expecting to find _here?_ It's the middle of galactic _nowhere!_"

"They have their reasons to come here," Ben said calmly as if Luke hadn't interrupted. "My real news is that your uncle and aunt have agreed to house one of them while they're here."

Luke couldn't fathom why Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru would want a stranger living with them for an undetermined amount of time, but he had to admit that it would bring a bit more excitement to his life. Maybe he'd learn a few things about xenoarcheology and decide to go into the field.

"Who is it?" he asked.

"Her name is Leia Organa."


	2. Chapter 2

"New Discoveries"

By EsmeAmelia

AN: Hey there! No, I'm NOT dead - I've just been so BUSY with NaNoWriMo and schoolwork.

Chapter 2

Luke blinked, as if trying to shake away a dream. "Leia Organa..._the_ Leia Organa?"

"Do you know of any others?" said Ben.

"Well...no...but...are you sure she's staying _with us?_"

"Why would I tell you this if I wasn't?"

Luke was silent, his bottom lip curling, rubbing fresh wetness on his top lip. Leia Organa...the daughter of Queen Breha Organa of Alderaan and her husband Senator Bail Organa...but it wasn't just her parentage that made her famous. She was the youngest xenoarcheologist in the known galaxy, no older than Luke - but from the stories he had heard, she had the skills of someone twice her age.

A strange feeling of embarrassment crept into the pit of Luke's stomach. He'd be meeting a xenoarcheologist who was _his age._ A further reminder that he was still living like a child even though he was almost twenty. What would she think of that?

"Shouldn't you be getting back to work?" Ben inquired suddenly.

"What? Oh...right!" Luke sprang up from his seat and dashed back to the kitchen for another monotonous day of work.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Luke's stomach was turning somersaults when he got home to the moisture farm. As he climbed out of his speeder, his legs felt like they had left their muscles back at work. Leia Organa...he would be meeting Leia Organa. _Living_ with Leia Organa.

He wondered how Ben had managed to get his aunt and uncle to allow this, being fairly convinced that Beru and especially Owen wouldn't approve of a stranger staying with them without outside persuasion. But then, maybe they too were struck with admiration for the young explorer.

He stared out at the horizon, squinting at the two suns gradually setting, turning the sky orange and red. It was his habit to do so every night, though he had no idea why. He didn't even find the Tatooine sunset particularly pretty. Maybe it was because every time he saw those two suns set meant another day when he hadn't yet seen a single sun setting. Visitors to Tatooine would comment about how strange it was to have a pair of suns in the sky, but Luke had never known anything different. For him, a sky with _one_ sun would be amazing, but perhaps he was destined never to see one.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Luke entered the dining room to find his aunt and uncle already well into eating dinner - with a young woman sitting between them. She had brown hair tied back behind her head, eyes nearly the exact same color as her hair, and when she saw Luke entering, a wide, charming smile.

"Hello there," she said, stimulating Luke's aunt and uncle to take notice of him. "You must be Luke." She stuck her hand out at him even though it was a bit awkward to shake hands over the table. "Hi, I'm Leia."

"Uh..." Luke grasped her hand between two fingers. "...hi."

"Sit down, Luke," said Beru. "Don't make our guest uncomfortable."

Luke obeyed, sitting across the table from Leia, feeling her eyes studying him. In an effort to ease the jumping in his stomach, he looked over at his uncle, whose head was down, staring at his food, as if trying to close himself away from all that was happening.

"So...how long are you going to stay here?" Luke said lamely.

Leia's smile didn't waver. "As long as it takes." Her voice was full of vigor. "We're on a very important mission here. You might not be aware of it, but this planet could hold the most important secret in the known galaxy."

Luke snorted. "I think you've got this confused with some other planet. Here you'll just find sand, sand, and more sand."

Leia's eyebrows narrowed. "Which one of us is the xenoarcheologist, you or me? Surely you must know about how Darth Vader vanished after he killed Emperor Palpatine? Or did you sleep through history class?"

"I was _alive_ for it," said Luke. "I'm not _that _young."

The xenoarchiologist raised a brow, as if she were a teacher trying to calm a short-tempered student. "Well, as you know, no one knows what happened to him after the historic duel with his master, nor do they know why he didn't proclaim himself the emperor after defeating Palpatine. It's widely believed that he took a blow from Palpatine and died himself as the result, but some experts disagree."

Luke's eyes widened - he had never heard of any speculations that Vader might have survived the duel.

"There is some evidence to suggest that yes, Vader was injured in the battle, but perhaps not as critically as generally believed," Leia continued. "It's been conjectured that maybe after the battle, he fled to his home planet, where he died in solitude from his injuries."

Luke pursed his lips. "His home planet?"

Leia gave a large, snapping nod. "Yes," she said. "Tatooine."


	3. Chapter 3

"New Discoveries"

By EsmeAmelia

AN: Happy New Year, all! Thanks as always for your reviews.

Chapter 3

"I don't like this," Owen muttered as he sat on the edge of the bed he shared with his wife. "I don't like this at all."

"Well you could have said no," said Beru, pulling her hair out of its tight bands, letting it fall over the shoulders of her white nightgown. "I wouldn't have protested if you did."

"Then why didn't _you_ say no?" Owen exclaimed. He sighed loudly. "Why did that old wizard have to intervene in our lives again?"

Beru sat down next to him, placing a hand on her husband's shoulder. "Owen, he gave us a wonderful son. How can you be angry at him for bringing Luke into our lives?"

Owen scrunched his eyes closed, leaning down and rubbing his forehead. "It's not Luke. It's this whole..._thing_ we've gotten ourselves into. Just when I thought everything was safe, then suddenly we've gotta house the other one - who's looking for, of all things, Darth Vader's remains." He turned to look at his wife. "Do you think _she_ knows?"

"From the way she was talking about Vader, I wouldn't say she does," Beru answered. "She seems to think he's just this fascinating historical figure."

Owen's eyebrows twitched. "Yeah, well out of all the xenoarchiologists in the galaxy, why is _she_ the one looking for him? And why is she staying at _our_ house? Pretty strange coincidence there." He ground his teeth from side to side. "Just you wait - she'll get Luke all interested and then he'll start asking questions."

"And would that be a _bad_ thing?" Beru intercepted. "Owen, Luke's an adult now. If we don't tell him now, when will we ever tell him?"

"Never," Owen said firmly.

"Owen!"

"I'm serious." Owen inhaled deeply as he put his arm around his wife. "Beru, think about it. Vader's dead and the Empire's gone. Telling him now will only trouble him for life."

Beru's fingers walked across her husband's shoulder before her hand squeezed it with a mixture of tenderness and firmness. "I understand, Owen, but we can't protect him from everything. If he's meant to find out, sooner or later he will."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"You actually believe Darth Vader's remains are on Tatooine?" Luke asked as soon as his aunt and uncle went to bed.

"Xenoarchiologists don't 'believe' anything." Leia was lounging on the sofa, her brown pants wrinkling against the cushions, revealing how tall her boots were. "We only discover. We might find Vader's remains, or we might find nothing at all."

Luke inhaled through his toothy grin. "But still...you must be _hoping_ that you'll find something."

Leia grinned back at him. "Maybe we are. But part of the fun is not knowing what we're going to find. Who knows, maybe instead of Vader's remains we'll find a buried treasure." She flung her body up into a sitting position. "Say, how would you like to come with me tomorrow to the dig?"

Luke's eyes widened. "Me...you mean it?"

Leia shrugged. "Sure. I could introduce you to the gang, you could watch what we do. What do you say?"

"Well...I have work."

Leia shrugged again. "After work, then. It's not unusual for us to work long into the night, after all. Maybe you could even convince your boss to let you off early."

Luke had never asked Biggs to be let off early, but seeing as how they had been friends since childhood, he would probably be easy to convince. "All right," Luke said. "I'll come."

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Morning at the Mos Eisley Spaceport. Speeders were hurrying in and out of the streets, freighter ships were taking off and landing, and shifty characters were slipping from building to building, hoping not to be seen. However, there was one building in which these characters could be seen without worry, for it was the hangout for people just like them.

The Mos Eisley Cantina had been open for only an hour, and yet the smoky bar was already bustling. Various species ordering drinks, chatting, gambling, looking for hookers. It would only be a matter of time before today's first brawl broke out - the bartender knew that all too well. Hardly a day ever passed when he didn't have to physically attempt to separate a couple of drunk customers, usually getting punched in the jaw as a result.

He wrinkled his eyelids, sniffling at the musky odor of alcohol and cigar smoke. It always got to his nostrils in the morning, before they became numb to it. After wiping his sweaty hands on his well-stained apron, he slid a beer across the bar to a Rodarin customer, who grabbed the drink without even acknowledging the bartender's existence, his green mouth immediately gulping it down and belching loudly before shouting out for another one in Huttese.

_Typical,_ the bartender thought. _Probably a bounty hunter._ The years working here had taught him how to recognize bounty hunters from their attitude, the way they showed off their weapons, the way they were always asking for information, the way they demanded without acknowledgment.

He would hate to be the person they were looking for.

The cantina band was playing their same loud music, the minor brass tune that stayed in his brain long after he returned home. _Shit, can't those guys come up with some new material?_ he thought. _Damn, this job sucks._

This job sucks. That thought came to him nearly every minute of every day, yet for whatever reason, he found himself still working here. Was it because of the stable paycheck or just because he'd given up on his real ambition a long time ago? An answer never came.

He was washing another vomit-covered mug, cringing as he scrubbed the vomit away with his bare hands, when he happened to look up and spot a young woman entering the cantina. Her tan jacket, brown pants, and brown boots covered her skin sufficiently - she couldn't be a hooker. Her lack of weapons and the straight, dignified way she carried herself told the bartender she wasn't a bounty hunter, gambler, or freighter pilot either. In fact, she looked like she belonged in a class entirely above the lot that usually hung out here.

As she came closer to the bar, he began to make out her features. Her jacket was undone at the top, revealing a bright red shirt underneath. She wore a tan hat with a wide brim, which almost completely concealed her dark brown hair. Her face was smooth and youthful - the bartender thought she couldn't be any older than twenty-two or twenty-three.

"What can I get you?" the bartender said, with a more interested tone that what he usually used to approach customers.

The woman folded her arms and rested them on the bar, staring at him with bright brown eyes. "Nothing right now. I'm just touring the spaceport, familiarizing myself with the area. But I'm sure some of us will be coming in later. After hard work at the dig, my gang likes to relax, after all." She raised a brow, studying the bartender's face. "Of course, some of them might prefer to be served by someone who combs his hair."

"Hey!" the bartender exclaimed, accustomed to insults from drunk patrons but not from sober ones. "Look missy, I dunno who you think you are, but you and your little _gang_ can just..."

"Sheesh," the woman interrupted, showing the bartender her palms. "I thought bartenders were supposed to be calm."

"You obviously haven't met many."

The woman leaned over the counter, looking directly in his eyes. "I happen to be a xenoarchiologist - I've met a whole spectrum of characters and traveled to more planets than you'll probably ever see in your life."

"You ain't met any 'characters' till you've been to the Mos Eisley Cantina, I can tell you that." The bartender returned to scrubbing the mug. "Anyway, if you ain't gonna order anything, I'm gonna have to ask you to make room for payin' customers."

The xenoarchiologist banged her hand on the counter, making him jump. "You might not want to say that - unless you want me to tell my gang that this is the worst hangout on the planet. Lots of paying customers there, but if you don't want them..."

"Okay, okay," he said, throwing up his wet hands in disgust. "Go ahead, bring your gang here, have a few parties. They can't be any worse than the Hutts I've had to serve."

The woman gave an infatuating smile. "That's more like it."

The bartender was about to say something else when a customer shouting, "'Ey Solo, where's me whiskey?" shifted his priorities.

"I've gotta get that," he said, quickly drying his hands.

The woman looked like she was trying to stifle a giggle. "Solo? Is that your name?'

"It's _Han_ Solo," he corrected grumpily. "No one I like calls me by my last name."

She smiled again, this time seeming almost honest. "All right, _Han._" She stuck out her hand, reaching across the bar. "I'm Leia."

Han briefly shook her calloused hand before rushing to the customer. "Nice to meet you."


	4. Chapter 4

"New Discoveries"

By EsmeAmelia

AN: This fic lives! Sorry it took me such an incredibly long time to update - between writer's block and my busy life this fic got swept away, but now it's back. Anyway, thanks to all the readers and reviewers. I'll try to do better with updating.

Chapter 4

Luke swallowed as he stood outside Biggs's office door, inhaling deeply to summon up his courage before hesitantly rapping on the door with his loosely-closed fist.

"Who is it?" Biggs's voice called from behind the door.

_Don't think of him as your boss,_ Luke tried to tell himself. _Think of him as your old pal._ "Uh...it's Luke. I have a question."

It seemed barely a second after he spoke that the door slid open, bringing Luke face to face with a smiling Biggs, his expression reminiscent of when they were children, racing their speeders through Beggar's Canyon. "Luke! What brings you here?"

His voice seemed to automatically eliminate the irregularities in Luke's stomach, though he still cleared his throat before speaking. "Hey buddy, I was wondering if maybe...I could be let off early today."

Biggs's smile didn't fade or even change its air in the slightest bit. "Sure you can. What kind of employer would I be if I never gave my workers a break?"

Luke felt his lungs relax, unable to believe that the conversation he'd prepared himself for had only lasted five seconds. It seemed anticlimactic, in a way.

"So what's the occasion?" Biggs asked.

Half of Luke's mouth turned upward, his body leaning against the arched doorframe. "You're not gonna believe it."

"Try me."

Luke's nose made a snickering noise. "All right, try the most famous xenoarcheologist in the galaxy inviting me to her dig?"

It was half a second before Biggs burst into laughter. "I've gotta hand it to you Luke, that's a good one."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"So glad you could make it," Leia said as she drove the landspeeder she was using to escort Luke to the dig site. "I hope your employer didn't give you too much trouble."

"No, no trouble at all," Luke shouted over the humming of the speeder's motor. He hoped the archeologist didn't notice that his body was pasted against his seat - he couldn't recall ever having ridden a speeder this fast.

"So why did you decide to take up this line of work anyway?" Luke said awkwardly after a few minutes.

"What?"

Luke ground his teeth to keep them from vibrating with the speeder. "Well...you're the princess of Alderaan, aren't you? This just seems like a pretty strange job for a princess."

Leia snickered slightly, not taking her eyes off the stretches of sand racing past them. "My parents thought that too. They wanted me to go into politics, join the senate or something like that."

"So why didn't you."

The princess shrugged. "I wanted to see more places, learn more things, not just argue with senators all day."

Luke found himself sighing. See more places, learn more things - exactly what he wanted in his life as well. Why didn't he have the same luck as this woman who was the same age as him? His eyes squinted as the two suns glared at him through the windshield. Those wretched suns, baking this planet, making it the most boring, uncomfortable place in the galaxy. Why couldn't he have been born with Leia's freedom?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Here," Leia said when they reached the dig site, parked on top of a hill overlooking a canyon. "You're going to want one of these." She pushed a wide-brimmed hat, similar to the one she was wearing, onto Luke's head. "These suns will burn you to a crisp if you're not careful."

Luke was about to remove the hat and tell her that he grew up here and he was used to the suns' heat, but something stopped him. Now he looked a bit more like the xenoarcheologists whose lives were full of adventure. It wouldn't do him any harm to keep the hat on for a while.

Once they were out of the speeder, a large, brown, furry creature began clambering up to them. Luke couldn't stop his eyes from widening - he had heard of these creatures before, but never actually seen one.

A Wookiee.

"Chewie!" Leia exclaimed with a laugh. "What's gotten you so excited?"

The Wookiee responded with a series of fast, excited growls.

"What? Already? Well by all means, let's get over there. But first..." Leia turned back to face Luke. "...you have to meet someone."

The Wookiee that Leia called "Chewie" was already looking at Luke with interested eyes, making him feel slightly uncomfortable.

"Chewie," Leia continued, extending her arm towards Luke, "this is Luke Skywalker. He's the nephew of the people I'm housing with and he wanted to see us in action." She extended her arm to the Wookiee. "Luke, this is Chewbacca, my second-in-command."

The Wookiee's big, hairy hand immediately grabbed Luke's, squeezing it to the point of discomfort and shaking it vigorously. He gave a series of cheery growls that Luke couldn't understand, but he thought (at least hoped) that they were friendly.

"Uh...hi," Luke said. "Nice to meet you, Chewbacca...or do you prefer to be called Chewie?"

Chewie nodded. He looked like he was smiling, though it was hard to tell how his mouth was shaped through all his fur. Luke had heard that Wookiees could be ferocious creatures, but if they granted someone their friendship, they were the most loyal allies. He supposed he should consider himself lucky that Chewie seemed to have already granted Leia his friendship and Leia was introducing Luke as a friend. The Wookiee might not be so nice to him otherwise.

"All right, Chewie then," Luke continued awkwardly.

"Anyway," said Leia, "Chewie was just telling me that while I was picking you up, they already found something interesting."

Luke's eyes widened. "What?"

Chewie roared out a noise that sounded almost like a laugh.

"He says it's a surprise," said Leia, grabbing Luke's wrist and pulling him down the hill. "Come on, let's go join the others and see just what it is."


	5. Chapter 5

"New Discoveries"

By EsmeAmelia

AN: SORRY for taking so long to update this story! Thanks to those who reviewed while I was gone.

Chapter 5

Luke found it hard to keep up with the archaeologist and the Wookiee as they ran down into the canyon. As the ground steepened, he found his feet beginning to slide over the sand, which was in turn poking its way into his shoes. He was beginning to think that maybe he should ask Leia if she'd lend him some of her sturdy-looking boots.

When they finally reached the bottom, Chewie gestured eagerly towards a group of other xenoarchaeologists kneeling in a circle, apparently studying something.

"All right Chewie, what is it?" asked Leia.

The Wookiee roared excitedly, pointing at the center of the circle, where there lay what looked like a dirty piece of black cloth on an equally-dirty filter of some sort.

"Oh wow," Leia said in awe, sounding as if they had found a precious gem instead of a piece of fabric.

Luke raised an eyebrow at the discovery. "What is it?"

"We don't know," said one of the archaeologists. She had shoulder-length dark hair and her hat pulled down so far that it was almost covering her eyes. "_But_ the color and texture seem to match the cape that Darth Vader wore."

"What??" Luke exclaimed, immediately leaning further forward, examining the bit of cloth, as if through the dirt there could be seen a great secret. He suddenly longed to touch it, to see what Darth Vader felt like, but it seemed that it would be out of place if he asked to touch it.

"Well this certainly looks promising," said Leia. "Let's keep digging here, everyone."

"Can I help?" Luke found himself asking without thinking it through first.

Leia smiled again at him. "Sure, why not?"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

By the time the suns began setting, Luke regretted asking to help dig. Even though he was used to the heat of two suns, digging in it for hours at a time made him feel dizzy. It seemed like he had to stop working every few seconds to wipe sweat off his forehead.

The hours in the heat might have been more bearable if they had actually _found_ anything, but nothing had turned up since that piece of cloth. All Luke discovered was sand, sand, sand, and the occasional rock. He was beginning to think that he would go insane if he had to dig through the sand for a minute longer. Why did xenoarchaeology turn out to be so _boring?_ He was beginning to think that he'd prefer to be back in Biggs's restaurant slicing vegetables.

"Luke, would you like to go home now?" Leia's voice offered.

Those words sounded like the sweetest music to him, but somehow he was embarrassed to reveal that. "Only if you're finished here."

"We're never _finished,_" said Leia, "but we can take breaks." She smiled at him. "Would you maybe like to take a break? I know someplace we can go for some refreshment before we go back to your house."

Luke found himself smiling back despite the discomfort from the heat. "I think I'd like that."

- - - - - - - - - - -

"A _cantina??"_ Luke exclaimed when Leia led him into the building.

Leia shrugged. "You don't have to drink if you don't want to. Personally, I just want to visit the bartender."

"The bartender?"

Leia gave a mischievous grin. "He's amusing. You'll see what I mean."

Luke said nothing, his nostrils feeling clogged up from the smell of smoke and alcohol. The band in the corner was playing an upbeat brass tune that was blaring into his ears. Several different species glared at him from their tables, all looking like they were itching to hurt him. He gulped, wondering what Owen and Beru would say if they found out their nephew was going to a place like this.

It was a bit exciting, the idea that he was doing something forbidden, even if it was something as minor as walking into a cantina with someone else. He wasn't doing it alone, he probably wasn't even going to drink, but just _being_ there filled him with a strange kind of thrill. Something _outside_ the limits his aunt and uncle set, something that said he did _not_ only live under them, that he was_ more_ than just their nephew.

"Hey you, we're closin' in five minutes!"

Luke's head jerked upward, his eyes darting towards the counter, where a bartender with shaggy brown hair was waving an angry finger at them.

Leia grinned. "See? Amusing." She raised her voice so the bartender could hear her. "Hey, you won't turn down a visiting xenoarchaeologist, will you?"

The bartender sighed upon seeing Leia. "You again? Are ya actually gonna order something this time?"

"Maybe," said Leia, shuffling up to the bar counter and motioning for Luke to follow her. "So how's your job going?"

"Is it any of your damn business?" the bartender snarled before noticing Luke. "Who's the kid?"

"_Kid??_" Luke exclaimed. "For your information, I'm the same age as her!"

"This is Luke," Leia said quickly, putting her hand on his shoulder. "He's the nephew of the people I'm staying with." She extended her other arm to the bartender. "Luke, this is Han Solo."

Luke hesitantly stuck his hand out and Han shook it. "Nice to meet you . . . Han."

"You too," Han said, his tone of voice indicating that he felt the opposite. He turned back to face Leia. "So what are you guys doin' here anyway?"

"You haven't heard of me, have you?" Leia said quizzically.

Han picked up a glass and absentmindedly began toweling it off. "Is there any reason why I should've?"

"She's Leia _Organa!_" Luke exclaimed. "The youngest xenoarchaeologist in the known galaxy! The one who's recovered several lost records of the Jedi and the way the old Republic was run!"

Han abruptly stopped toweling. "Leia _Organa?"_ He raised a brow at Leia. "Hold on a sec, you're Leia _Organa?"_

"Yes," said Leia.

A grin slowly crept across Han's face. "Well then . . . how about I buy you guys a drink?"


End file.
